Improvement in any sport depends on physiology, technology, coaching, and equipment

Today's NY Times asks how it's possible that, when it comes to free throw shooting, basketball players today have about as much success as the players of 40 years ago.

We run faster, jump higher, have better shoes and uniforms, train harder (and smarter), eat better, yet in four decades, we've still not improved as FT shooters.

The general expectation in sports is that performance improves over time. Future athletes will surely be faster, throw farther, jump higher. But free-throw shooting represents a stubbornly peculiar athletic endeavor. As a group, players have not gotten better. Nor have they become worse.

According to Southern Utah coach Roger Reid (pictured above), "A lot of coaches give it lip service, but when you say that games are won and lost at the free-throw line, you better back it up." Coach Reid contends that "individual players and teams can improve free-throw shooting through better technique and repetition."

One reason why more teams/players don't work on FT shooting is that "there is little correlation between free-throw percentages and winning percentages. Only one of the 25 best shooting teams, No. 2 North Carolina, is also in the latest Associated Press top 25 rankings."

That is why, despite accounting for more than 20 percent of scoring in men’s college basketball and just below 20 percent in the N.B.A., free throws receive a fraction of the attention from coaches, players and fans. That is, until something considered free proves costly. [Like when Memphis missed "4 of 5 free throws in the final 72 seconds against Kansas, which had made a late 3-point shot to tie the game and won in overtime."]

One professor who's studied sports statistics extensively has found that "widespread improvement over time in any sport... depends on a combination of four factors: physiology, technology or innovation, coaching, and equipment."

Those factors can help explain why swimming records seemingly fall at every international event, runners broke through the four-minute-mile barrier, field-goal kickers are more accurate than ever, bowling a 300 game is not as unlikely as it once was, and home run numbers surged in major league baseball.

As the professor puts it, "There are not a lot of those four things that would help in free-throw shooting," except for coaching.

Coaches admit to baselines of acceptability for their players and teams. The average, apparently, is about 75 percent in the N.B.A. and 69 percent in college basketball. When numbers slip, time is devoted to improvement. When they rebound, the game’s other facets take precedence.

D-League guard Blake Ahearn, the best FT shooter in NCAA history (95%) says that rather than devoting time to free-throw shooting in practice, coaches "want to work on defenses and offenses and schemes."
But as the NY Times article concludes, "even practice has never made perfect."

The general rule is that players, in games, shoot 10 percentage points below their practice average. The difference is pressure and fatigue, hard to replicate in an empty arena.

26 Winning Basketball Principles

Hall of Fame coach Alvin "Doggie" Julian led Holy Cross to the 1947 NCAA Championship.

During his 41-year coaching career, he also coached the Celtics and at Dartmouth, where he won three Ivy League titles.

The following is from Jerry Krause and Ralph Pim's book, "Basketball: Beyond the X's and O's."

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26 Winning Basketball Principles
by Alvin Julian

Success in basketball is dependent upon 26 principles. These winning principles are fundamentally sound, simple to teach, easy to remember, and apply to any style of play or age group.

1. Protect the ball. Bad passes and low-percentage shots are the trademarks of a poor team.

2. Be careful on a lay-up. More games are won on lay-up shots than on any other, and more games are lost because of poor lay-up shots than by any other shot.

3. Basketball is a game in motion. Motion on the court is vital. Too many players stand still and beg for the ball. Players should always pass and move. This action will take their defenders away from the ball and open up the court for a teammate.

4. Always fake direction. Faking is important because it tricks opponents into making mistakes.

5. Move to meet the pass. Moving and meeting the pass is the stamp of a good ballplayer. Players who move and meet passes make it easy for teammates to get them the ball.

6. When in trouble, make a V-cut (i.e., "clear out"). A player in the wrong position on the floor should make a V-cut. This will open up the floor.

7. Don't think for the opponents -- be yourself. Play your game and do not spend time trying to figure out what your opponents are thinking.

8. One player cuts at a time. Always remember -- only one cutter at a time. Two players cutting at the same time allows the defense to be in a position to either double-team the ball or stop the play.

9. Grab it -- don't tap it. Effective rebounders grab and secure the ball rather than tapping it.

10. Never force a shot. Never shoot a shot if closely defended. Before attempting a shot, make sure that you have teammates in rebounding positions.

11. Dribbling is an emergency measure. Nine out of 10 players dribble or bounce the ball before they do anything else. This is a bad habit because it limits a player's opportunities.

12. Talk to your teammates. Talking on offense and defense builds team play. Talking encourages teammates. Talking on defense is vital when picking up loose opponents.

13. Never turn your head on defense. Players should never turn their heads to watch the ball when playing man-to-man defense. When players change from offense to defense, they should backpedal so that they can locate their personal opponent or help in case of a fast break.

14. Don't cross your feet on defense. Successful defensive players move their feet in short steps when playing defense.

15. Hands up on defense. Tight-rope walkers use their hands for defense, and the good defensive player does likewise. Movement of the hands and feet discourages passing and shooting and shows that the defensive player is on the ball.

16. Watch your opponent's belly-button. We like our defensive players to keep their eyes glued to a part of the offensive ball-player that can't fool them -- the belly-button.

17. Pick up the first man. When you are back or coming down the floor ahead of the rest of your teammates, pick up the first offensive player down the court, whether it's your assigned player or not.

18. Don't leave your feet on defense. Good defensive players keep their head up and their feet on the ground.

19. Get position for rebounds. Instinct and sensing the direction of the shot and the angle of the rebound enables players to move into the correct rebounding position.

20. If you can't rebound, you can't win. Good rebounding limits the opponents' shots and this is the key to winning basketball games.

21. The first fast-break pass must be perfect. The fast break must get started with a quick outlet pass. If the first pass is a good one, the fast break is underway. After it's started, it's hard to stop.

22. You must make 70 percent of your free throws. There is no excuse for being a poor free-throw shooter. Practice, confidence, and the proper technique are the keys.

23. Keep the defense busy. If all five offensive players keep moving, their opponents cannot afford to sag or float. Moving with or without the ball forces the defense into making mistakes.

24. Don't cross the backboard to shoot. A player should learn to shoot from both sides of the basket and with both hands.

25. Never underrate an opponent. Be ready to play every game. Overconfidence can affect a team's play. It is wise to remember that it is only the underdog who can do the upsetting.

26. Practice does not always make perfect -- if you practice the wrong thing. Players often work long and hard and make little progress because they are practicing incorrectly.

A pure shooter is a guy who's spent time in the gym working on his shot

SLAM magazine's Matt Caputo has a good Q&A with Mark Price, a four-time NBA All-Star who won the 3-Point Shooting Contest twice, in which he asks Price about how he developed as a shooter.

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The secret is you have to have good technique and you’ve got to spend the time and put hours and hours in. There is no quick-fix. You hear the term, “pure-shooter,” but what people would call a pure shooter is a guy that’s probably spent a lot of time in the gym working on it.

I spent a lot of time in the gym. I was fortunate because my dad [the late Denny Price] was a coach, and I typically had a place to work out. My dad taught me what he thought was the right way to shoot the ball, and he told me it was up to me as far as how hard I was going to work. I spent a lot of hours just trying to perfect my shot, because I wasn’t real big—I was probably only 5-11, 155 pounds when I showed up at Georgia Tech. I had to work hard on my skills.

Form first, and the range will come

What does LeBron James have in common with Tiger Woods?

According to Chris Ballard in SI, "Just as Tiger Woods remade his swing when he was already dominant, James spent last summer quietly reconstructing his jumper, working with assistant coach Chris Jent five days a week, an hour and a half per session."

Why?

If you watched James shoot last year, you know why; even though teams were petrified of his penetration, he sometimes looked like he was chucking pumpkins at the backboard. According to NBA.com, he hit only 37.1% of his two-point jumpers from the top of the key and the wings, which are the money spots for an off-the-dribble midrange shooter.

Ballard describes how Lebron -- "like a pee-wee player, began by putting up one-handed shots close to the basket."

He graduated to "one-dribble jumpers and free throws, then midrange shots. Remarkably, never once during the sessions did he fling a three-pointer."

Says Coach Jent:

"Form first, and the range will come."

Three keys to shooting free throws

Good post by Hall of Famer Rick Barry on NBA.com about Jose Calderon's FT shooting technique.

Calderon has made 79 consecutive free throws, just three shy of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf's streak of 82 straight.

Micheal Williams, who played for me in the CBA, hit 97 in a row, the NBA's all-time record.

Barry contends that fans don't "appreciate how difficult it is to sustain this type of excellence for a prolonged period of time."

The pursuit of Williams' record is a reflection of remarkable consistency by Calderon. To be this consistent with your shot, time after time after time, is extremely impressive. This consistency demonstrates a level of perfection to the highest degree possible and indicates a high level of confidence in his ability to make free throws.

According to Barry, Calderon's success can be traced to "technique, confidence, routine and a little luck."

Technique: "First, he gets his hand set properly under the ball. Then he shoots the ball "up," not "at" the basket. He also has a great follow through on his release. Rarely, if ever, will the ball miss to the left or to the right. Great shooters miss a hair long or a hair short. Missing left or right indicates a problem with the shooting form."

Confidence: "I'm sure Jose believes he's going to make every free throw he shoots. I know I did when I made 60 in a row, which was then a league record. There isn't any pressure when you have confidence. When your confidence wavers, that's when you start feeling pressure. Pressure only exists if you allow it to exist."

Routine: "All great free-throw shooters have a consistent routine. Basically, they do the same thing every single time they shoot. They program themselves to the point that once the ball is handed to them at the free-throw line, whatever was in their mind goes away. The routine takes over immediately. The entire focus and concentration is on the routine, which has been repeated thousands of times. Having a consistent routine has allowed Jose to put together this outstanding string."

Jose's routine goes like this: Before receiving the ball, he'll spread his arms to the side, as if he's stretching them, loosening them up. Once he gets the ball, he takes a deep breath and then dribbles three times before focusing on the basket and releasing the ball.

When thinking gets in the way of shooting

UCLA's Nikola Dragovic, a 6-9 junior forward from Serbia, has connected on just five of his 30 3-point attempts this season.

[As a point of comparison, Dragovic's teammate Michael Roll is 16-28 from 3-point range this season.]

Dragovic's FG percentage is up overall from last season (38% vs 33%), but something's not clicking for him.

According to this article, "Dragovic has talked about feeling hesitant, passing up open shots."

To improve his shooting, UCLA "coaches want him to crouch lower when he receives passes, so he gets his legs into the shot. Beyond that, [UCLA coach Ben] Howland doesn't want to make a big deal of Dragovic's low percentage."

"When everybody starts talking about it, and it's the same question, it becomes too much thinking about it rather than following your routine."